The Early Hanses 43
Court) was composed in the mid-thirteenth century and cites “the wisest of all
cities in the German realm” as its authors.88
The merchants themselves called the organization, which they formed on
Gotland (and which is the best preserved of all) around the middle of the
thirteenth century, universitas mercatorum Romani imperii Gotlandiam fre-
quentantium (the association of merchants from the Roman Empire visiting
Gotland).89 In this way, they essentially declared that their members were
connected, not through local or regional origin, but by virtue of belonging to
the Empire and in consequence of their shared trading destination, Gotland,
the central gather point for the Eastern trade. This universitas included the
provision for self-governance and (most likely already in 1229, see above, or
at the latest beginning in the mid-thirteenth century) a seal with the above-
mentioned text as an inscription. In scientific literature, this federation is called
the “Gotländische Genossenschaft” (Gotlandish Union), a term of the scien-
tific art from the nineteenth century, which is undocumented in the sources.
Gutnish and German merchants on Gotland formed the gilda communis,
which thus also became (or was part of ) the universitas mercatorum. In 1191/92,
this merchant association dispatched an emissary, the Goth Arbud (Herbord),
to the Prince of Novgorod for the purpose of finalizing a trade treaty. Ultimately,
the prince, as the English king would also eventually do, acknowledged this
federation of merchants stemming from various ethnic origins as the recipi-
ent of the rights stipulated by the treaty. The formation of a universitas was
the consistent and legal consequence of a certain trading practice in which
Gutnish merchants initially transported their Low German trade partners
from Lübeck to Gotland and probably, a bit later, from Gotland to Novgorod.
At first, this transportation took place on Gutnish ships, but was later carried
out on mixed fleets. Such cooperation was so successful for both parties that it
was also extended to the trade with England. This community of Gutnish and
Low German merchants lasted more than 100 years and was one of the few
‘international’ mainstays of early Hanseatic history.
The gilda commnunis thus seems to have been a federation of local Gutnish
merchants and German guests in Visby enjoying an autonomous jurisdiction.
The latter was probably the reason why Bishop Albert of Riga made the 1211
establishment of a gilda communis in Riga and in the Duna trade contingent
88 Wolfgang Schlüter, ed., Die Novgoroder Schra in sieben Fassungen vom xiii. bis xvii.
Jahrhundert. (Lübeck: Lübcke und Nöhring, 1916).
89 Detlef Kattinger, Die Gotländische Genossenschaft. Der frühhansisch-gotländische Handel
in Nord- und Westeuropa, Quellen und Darstellungen zur hansischen Geschichte, N.F.,
vol. 47 (Cologne: Böhlau-Verlag, 1999), passim; Jahnke, “Homines imperii,” 29–47.